Whale Bone...?

Moogle Pepper · January 24, 2010

So I had a lot of free time today. I found my brother's whale (really not sure what it is) bone he found and did some macro shots!

Check out the rest on my blog!

DaddyO · January 25, 2010

Hmmm... Whale bone. Definitely not something we'd come across around here.
Other old bones yes.

The first image resembles a weather eroded animal sculpture of some sort.

Moogle Pepper · January 25, 2010

It definitely looks like an ancient artifact that was recovered!

mehampson · January 25, 2010

How big is this vertebrae, roughly? Might give an idea of what kind of animal it came from -- it's hard to tell from the shots, but the sponge-like texture does look like bone from a whale.

By the way, as a whale guy I'm compelled to point out that whale bones aren't legal to own, even if they're found long-dead on the beach. Your brother might want to consider donating it to a museum or university, someplace that has a permit for them.

Moogle Pepper · January 25, 2010

I have no idea how big the vertebrae was. I am going by my brother's word. And... it isn't legal to have one?! :uhoh

paddler4 · January 25, 2010

I did not realize that either, but a quick Google search indicates that it is not legal. Ditto for some migratory birds. Check out the link below. I'll have to be more careful beachcombing...

http://www.boneroom.com/faqs/specific.html

mehampson · January 25, 2010

Sorry, this is a hell of a threadjack, I know. I'm not a lawyer, but I've done a lot of work with marine life -- including as a naturalist on a whale watch vessel -- and have some understanding of the laws around this. Basically, one section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act makes it illegal to own, buy, or sell their body parts in the US. The law does a lot beyond that, and is probably the only reason several protected species aren't extinct already.

There are exceptions for very specific and limited reasons, like if you can prove you had a bone since before the law was enacted in 1972. Parts you find on the beach like this are not one of those exceptions, even if the animal died from natural causes.

This is only relevant if that's actually a vertebrae from a whale or manatee or the like, and not from a deer that died on the beach six months earlier. If it were in my living room, what I would do is ask a marine biologist at a local university to take a look at it, and they'll have an idea if A. it's from a marine mammal, and B. if there's someplace nearby that can use it for educational purposes. Your profile says you're in New Jersey, which does have plenty of marine mammals near shore -- I'm sure they get questions like this regularly.

Apologies again for the threadjack!

Edit: I can't believe my 100th post on a photography forum was talking about the MMPA in the macro section

Moogle Pepper · January 25, 2010

oh...

S---!
:uhoh

DaddyO · January 25, 2010

:hide

Blew his hundredths post bringing you up to speed. Wonder how
much jail time you"ll get?

Moogle Pepper · January 25, 2010

What?? I am not a criminal! just a person who thought it was cool to photograph! Besides, I wasn't the one who brought it back!

Congrats on getting the 100th post! I am glad I did something for someone! :lol

mehampson · January 25, 2010

Haha, thanks!

I didn't mean to suggest you're off to jail. Actually I skipped mentioning the penalties section of the act because I didn't want to scare you. Looking at the penalty schedule, which we are all wholly unqualified to interpret, the first offense of 'collecting parts' is a fine of a few hundred dollars. The jailtime and $20,000 fines are probably aimed more towards someone killing and smuggling sea otter pelts.

The main point of the act is to make it illegal to "harass, hunt, capture, kill or collect, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, kill or collect" any marine mammal, and on a scale of 1-10, taking what might be a whale bone from the beach rates about a 1.5 in comparison to hitting an endangered right whale with your cargo ship, or netting an entire pod of dolphins to catch the tuna traveling with them. As a regular normal guy who's had pretty minimal involvement with the justice system, I wouldn't expect them to throw the book at someone who didn't know and made an effort to get the bone to someone who could legally take it, and put it to good use -- it's not like educational organizations can just go kill a whale whenever they want a vertebrae to show to people, after all, so somebody somewhere could put it to good use. But again, I'm not a lawyer.

Don't lose any sleep over it, but it'd definitely be a good idea to find a safer home for it. Preferably one with a paper trail -- I wouldn't suggest tossing this back in the ocean, in case some enterprising/bored guy at NOAA reads this down the road and wants to know what happened to it. Actually, calling NOAA Fisheries would tell you the best course of action, really.

Moogle Pepper · January 26, 2010

Good thing I work for a university. I'll have to ask one of the professors if they could take it off my hands.

It was just so cool to photograph though!

Whale Bone...?

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